Project:

Team McGehee Professional Development Project


MISSION STATEMENT: Our team will engage in ongoing research of 21st century technologies in order to offer our experiences to our fellow teachers. Team members will teach/learn, model/adapt, search/lead, support/receive, motivate/respond, and persuade/accept.


PLP MAIN FEATURES of ACTION PROPOSAL: April, 2010
Louise S. McGehee School Professional Development Project- PLP Year 1


WATCH A MESSAGE FROM OUR STUDENTS TO TEACHERS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY USE:





Challenge: To assist all faculty in utilizing appropriate 21st century technology in classroom as well as for personal professional development.

Project Design: Year 2 and Year 3
· Pre-school faculty workshop (August 2010) will be conducted by PLP team members.
· Workshop focus: introduction of new or underused technologies/applications.
· Monthly lunch sessions for continued focus/support of faculty.
· Two team members (Middle School and Lower School) are acquiring advanced training in Smart Board Notebook programs to become resident “experts” and guides.
· Team is collaborating with Technology Department to provide advanced/specialized on Smart Board by company representative.
· PLP team will continue work to stay informed of new uses of technology.
· PLP team will establish school NING and will stay in touch with faculty there and email.
· PLP team members will actively seek content based-technology suggestions for specific teaching situations (social technologies-such as PLP NING will be important avenues for collaborative research for this).
· Pre-program assessment survey administered March 2010; analysis underway (same survey will be re-administered periodically for monitoring efficacy of program).
· Second survey is under construction to take inventory of specific skills possessed by faculty and students (ex. Can you insert a header, can you embed photo into document, etc.). This will be administered following August 2010 workshop; results will guide workshops, seminars to address those deficiencies.
· PLP Year 3 will continue the above efforts and will add outreach to parents to help them become educated monitors of their students’ technological activities.


PLP Team Reasoning which Produced Project:

· Teaching/Learning should be a seamless garment.
· Teachers and Students are well-served by the same traits à enthusiasm, flexibility, willingness to learn something new.
· Education is an ongoing process of change (journey, not destination, is important).
· Change is frequently resisted because change = “death of old” + “rebirth of new”.
· Can teachers legitimately ask students to become educated (changed) if teachers resist change (refusing to become literate in 21st century technology)?
· Students live in a socially connected technological world in which learning is non-linear and snippets of information bounce around.
· If that world remains foreign to teachers, then contributing to a productive learning exchange will become increasingly formidable task.
· 21st century technology enhances ability of teachers and students to become life-long learners.




To view entire McGehee School PLP Professional Development Proposal:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AWRMv6dUq3ObZGZmZDVwN3JfMHF3NW10eGZk&hl=en

Team Members


Name Harrie Watson Team Leader
Email Address
HarrieW@mcgeheeschool.com
Upper School Biology


Name Lauren Kodrof
Email Address
LaurenK@mcgeheeschool.com
Lower School Science

Name Lee White
Email Address
LeeW@mcgeheeschool.com
Middle School Science

Name Isabelle Henderson
Email Address
IsabelleH@mcgeheeschool.com
Upper School Math Geometry and Advanced Math


























Name Noel Waddington
Email Address
NoelW@mcgeheeschool.com
Upper School English



Name Maureen Gilly - Fellow
Email Address
MaureenG@mcgeheeschool.com
Network Administrator